Earlier this month, UFCW 3000 member Richard Talbot, a grocery worker at Fred Meyer #25 in Bellingham, joined Washington Congresswoman Suzan DelBene and a group of SNAP recipients, food bank staff, educators, and community advocates at the Arlington Community Food Bank to talk about the devastating cuts to nutrition assistance in the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB).
Read MoreKris Wood works at Mason General Hospital in the lab and has been a union member since 2012. Over the years Kris has held various positions of leadership and advocacy for her coworkers and community.
Read MoreBy day, Colleen works in the Lab at Tacoma General as a Med Tech. Outside of work, she conquers Ironman competitions.
Read MoreErika Bolser has worked as a medical assistant with Skagit Regional Health’s urgent care at station square for over 7 years and been involved as a shop steward since 2018. For Erika one of the most important things she does is to welcome new hires to the union and make sure they know their rights under the contract.
Read MoreSix out of the Seven Bargaining Committee members had never sat at a bargaining table before, and this is only the second contract fight for the workers at Twin City Foods (TCF).
Seis de los siete miembros del Comité de Negociación nunca se habían sentado en una mesa de negociaciones antes, y esta es solo la segunda lucha contractual para los trabajadores de Twin City Foods (TCF).
Read MoreMatthew was hired on as a meat wrapper at Safeway in March of 2023. After a few paychecks he noticed he was not being paid as promised, so he talked to his union representative.
Read MoreKrystal Krotzer is a Pharmacy Tech at Kaiser Permanente in Veradale, WA. Krystal has been at Tech for over 20 years where she began her career at Walgreens and moved on to Kaiser formerly Group Health in 2015.
Read MoreNo matter who you are, sometimes life can be pretty rough. And sometimes the problems we’re faced with just can’t be solved while our regular day-to-day lives continue. The boss’s attitude is often, “Not my problem. You need to work your regularly scheduled shift!” Which is why union contracts generally have provisions for leaves in these situations, and why the labor movement has always pushed for laws to protect workers from unjust terminations and discipline when they need to take time off work for emergency situations.
Read MoreMonica Meloy and Jason Sherwood Foug knew their contract language and timelines, and helped win them and their coworkers nearly $80,000 in backpay for bonus pay in their contract that was paid out incorrectly.
Read MoreShelbie had heard that the Union contract was about to expire and discovered that there was no one at the Long Beach location of Harbors Home Health and Hospice to represent them in these negotiations. So she volunteered to serve on the bargaining committee both for herself and coworkers. As bargaining unfolded, she learned more about the rights the contract provided her and how important it was to enforce it.
Read MoreRoberta Bollin (Birdie) has been with the Burlington Fred Meyer store since 2002 and loves working for a company that is represented by a union and being able to help solve problems on every day working conditions, like being able to take breaks, with management without having to fear repercussions.
Read MoreAs a twenty-nine year Safeway employee in Spokane Washington, who has been a shop steward for twenty of those years, Vanessa Evans has seen that consolidation over decades of work in the grocery business.
Read MoreEmma Perdomo received her Bachelor of Science from Southern New Hampshire University in Health Information Management. She moved to Washington with her husband and applied at North Valley Hospital in Tonasket Washington. Emma got the job and was placed on the union-bargained wage scale but suspected it wasn’t the correct step.
Read MoreMichael McDonald is an Emergency Department Tech in the pediatric department at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane Washington. Michael assists doctors and nurses in giving care to kids who come into the Emergency Room and makes sure that the rooms and equipment are ready to go when needed.
Read MoreKyle Chrisman
Kyle Chrisman has been working at LabCorp for almost 18 years on Capitol Hill as a phlebotomist. Kyle is dedicated to his patients and coworkers, which is why he fights so hard to build collective power on the job. Kyle is currently serving on the LabCorp union bargaining committee. Phlebotomist union members at LabCorp have often had their concerns ignored by their employer and Kyle is ensuring that LabCorp hears them loud and clear during negotiations.
LabCorp is having trouble staffing and retaining workers and union members know why, LabCorp needs to provide competitive wages and benefits. The City of Seattle recently announced that the minimum wage within city limits would be going up 6.85%, which helps workers keep pace with the increased costs of living and working in the city. Instead of proposing a wage scale based on the percentage, LabCorp simply bumped all positions that were under the new minimum wage rate of $19.97. This compresses the scale so that several of the steps are at the same rate. LabCorp then maintained their offer of below-market raises, decreased percentages between steps above minimum wage, and higher health care costs.
Kyle and his fellow bargaining committee members know that is simply not realistic when it comes to making ends meet and safely caring for patients. That is why the bargaining committee updated their proposal to reflect the effects of the new minimum wage throughout their wage instead of just meeting it like LabCorp.
Stay tuned as Kyle and his fellow union members fight for a better contract and better patient care, they have already held one info picket are prepared to take further action to ensure a fair contract!
Shama RamZan (furthest to the left) in The now closed Des Moines Bartell Drugs
Before Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy it had started to close area stores, including the Bartell Drugs stores that they had purchased in 2021. Unfortunately for Shama Ramzan and her coworkers, one of them was the Des Moines Bartell Drugs. Under the union contract, however, workers had rights to severance pay based on their years of service with Bartell Drugs.
Contract negotiations for Bartell Workers had already been underway when the first round of store closures was announced, and so the Union at the bargaining table began to ask questions about the scope and timeline for any planned store closures.
Shama and her coworkers at other locations began to speak up and demanded that Rite Aid be transparent about the store closures and insist that benefits would be paid out on a timely basis. Because of Shama and her coworkers’ advocacy, the Union was able to successfully fight back against Rite Aid’s delays in communication and ensure that Bartell Drugs union members received the severance deserved on a timely basis.
Rite Aid’s failure as a company is not the fault of the employees! Sometimes it is when times are toughest that having a union really counts, and can ensure that even when your store closes, there are benefits to help cushion the blow.
Craig White
Craig came to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett (PRMCE) a year and a half ago. Craig might be relatively new to Prov Everett, but he is not new to the staffing labor/management committees required at hospitals. Craig was also on a staffing committee at his last hospital and knows how important it is for nurses to fight for the proper staffing levels to ensure patient safety and nurse longevity on the job. When he quickly joined his staffing committee at PRMCE, he showed how passionate he is about patient care and proactively securing the working conditions that make safety possible.
As we write this, the nurses at PRMCE are less than 24 hours away from an unfair labor practice strike, where the main issue is Providence’s failure to bargain in good faith over safe staffing conditions. Since 2021 staffing levels have deteriorated with 600 nurses leaving the hospital, and Providence failing to attract new staff to replace them. This is a crisis that has put patients and nurses at risk as quality patient care eroded. Providence has so far refused to listen to the nurse-led bargaining committee to fix this problem.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 14th, 2023 at 6 a.m. 1,300 nurses will be going on strike and forming picket lines at both the Colby and Pacific locations of PRMCE. If you are one of the nurses who will be on strike, stay up to date with the latest info on our Strike page. If you are a UFCW 3000 member who works at another employer you can pledge your support here, RSVP to our Candlelight Vigil, or just show up at either PRMCE location to join the picket (coffee and doughnuts are always a plus on a picket line)!
Shop Steward Matthew Kendrick
Matthew Kendrick has been the shop steward at the Bremerton Fred Meyer for 4 years. As he has gotten more involved in helping and advocating for his coworkers, he decided to get trained to represent union members during investigatory meetings that could lead to discipline. Recently, he put that training to use when a coworker was being investigated around a shoplifting incident at the store.
Union members have the right to ask for representation before they answer questions that the member reasonably believes could result in discipline. This is often called Weingarten Rights (named after the 1975 Supreme Court case confirmed them), and they are key to ensuring that your right to “just cause” (due process) before employers issue discipline to union members.
The most important thing for union members to know is that they have to request representation before, or during, an investigatory meeting, management doesn’t have to. That is precisely what happened when a coworker contacted Matthew to represent them in an investigatory meeting!
Before the meeting even starts, Weingarten Stewards will make sure that the member understands that they have to answer questions, but that if management is asking leading or unfair questions, the steward can step in to object and advise the member on the best way to respond. Stewards and members also have the right to pause the meeting and find a private place to talk. Most of all, the steward takes notes on the member’s behalf and works with union staff to ensure that management is being fair both in its investigation and in any discipline issued.
Matthew did just that for his coworker and then advocated for reducing the discipline from termination to a written warning. Shoplifting policies are often very tough; terminations are often upheld even when the union files a grievance. But because shoplifting has become so widespread, blatant, and sometimes aggressive, UFCW 3000 reached an agreement with grocery store employers that termination is NOT always the right answer.
When discussing the incident with management, Matthew pointed out that his coworker had been with Fred Meyer for decades and had always been a model employee, sometimes spending more waking hours at Fred Meyer than at home. While there was a policy violation, the worker was acting to protect their coworkers and the place where they all spent so much of their lives, and a warning would correct the problem. Management agreed to reduce the discipline to a written warning instead of automatic termination!
Matthew used an important shop steward skill in this situation: negotiation and persuasion. Grievances and arbitrations are important to hold employers to account when there is no other choice when defending union members’ rights, but informally solving problems in cooperation can often get better results more quickly for workers when they are in a jam.
Matthew’s story is a great example of the difference that union representation can make in an investigatory meeting. And it happened because the worker requested representation!
If you would like to find out more about your rights as a union member, are interested in becoming a shop steward, or want to further your steward education, contact your rep or sign up for training here on our website.
Penolope DeMeerleer at the Edmonds’ PCC educating customers about the fight for a fair contract.
Penelope DeMeerleer works at the Ballard PCC and has jumped headfirst into stewardship. She traces her enthusiasm for organizing with her coworkers back to her time working as an advocate focused on empowering children born with disabilities. Penelope has worked as a grocery clerk in the front end of the store checking out customers for over a year now. As contract negotiations started this year she knew that PCC workers had a lot on the line for their future.
Better wages, staffing levels (or a premium for when staff is so low that everyone has to work harder), and transportation options are just some of the issues on the table for these essential food chain workers. While they have made progress on important working condition issues and better leave of absence language, they still have a long way to go.
Penelope knows that workers showing solidarity in PCC stores is the key to winning at the bargaining table and has been eager to talk to her coworkers about getting active. So she is making sure Ballard PCC union members have the latest bargaining updates and are participating in actions such as the leaflet action at PCC Edmonds (pictured above).
Craig Kistler
Craig Kistler is a former Marine Deputy who now serves his community at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center as a Mental Health Counselor.
He joined the union about a year ago. He was happy to join because he saw the union addressing the needs of him and his coworkers. Craig and a co-worker talked about the benefits of the union and that the union started with the members at the work site, which is why he became interested in being more involved in helping build the power of the union.
He is happy to be a shop steward and is excited to be part of the bargaining team for the upcoming contract negotiations.
We are the Union. The members of UFCW 3000 are over 50,000 members working in grocery, retail, health care, meat packing, cannabis, & other industries across Washington state, north-east Oregon, and northern Idaho. UFCW 3000 is a chartered member of UFCW International with over 1.4 million workers in North America.
To build a powerful Union that fights for economic, political and social justice in our workplaces and in our communities.
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